In this unit, I will use both children's literature and various works of art to help students better understand that their perception of helpless African American victims meekly submitting to an unjust system is not a full or accurate one. They will become familiar with the presence of a forceful resistance which existed in the African American community, beginning with the period of slavery up until the present. Special emphasis will be placed on the role played by families and seemingly ordinary people in facing the struggle.
From slavery through the Civil Rights Movement on until today, we will examine many ways in which African American families discovered methods of resisting and means of expressing their dissent in the face of tremendous power. Singing a Negro spiritual, running away from captivity, going to war, marching for freedom, organizing a boycott, integrating a school, being elected to public office, recording history and stirring emotions through art are only some of the ways in which authority was defied. I will suggest a number of books and related films which present stories from these different time periods in African American history. In this reading material, the involvement of family as a unit of defiance will be highlighted, emphasizing the roles played by seemingly ordinary people. In these books and stories, students will uncover the role played by African American families and their individual members involved in these struggles. Whether using fiction or reality, the focus will be on the strength and bravery of individual, outwardly ordinary families, common folk driven to action. Together with the reading material and films which I will present, works of art which can be related to resistance will be used to motivate discussion and encourage further reading. The paintings of Jacob Lawrence, particularly The Migration Series, will be highlighted.
The written material and works of art I have selected as my focus correspond to different periods of African American history. Roughly, these periods include: The Years of Slavery, The Civil War, Reconstruction, The Period Surrounding World War I and II, The Growth of the Civil Rights Movement, and Issues Related to African American Life in Modern Day United States. The stories and works of art related to each period will be presented to the whole class, small groups, and/or individual students, depending on its content and level of difficulty. Many stories will be read to the class orally with appropriate discussion and debate. Written and spoken assignments will be related to the material being covered. Besides the related academic skills and understanding of the role played by the African American family as a force of resistance and dissent, this unit will present students with a clear picture of African American history in the United States from the period of slavery up until modern times. Often, pupils have a fragmented picture of this history, with more emphasis on individual biographies than on the movement of history through the years. This incomplete view easily can lead to a distortion of what was reality.
